"The use of money does not disestablish the normal process of creating credit. Money, it is true, is always being paid into the banks by the retailers and others who receive it in the course of business, and they of course receive bank credits in return for the money thus deposited. But for the manufacturers and others who have to pay money out, credits are still created by the exchange of obligations, the banker's immediate obligation being given to his customer in exchange for the customer's obligation to repay at a future date. We shall still describe this dual operation as the creation of credit. By its means the banker creates the means of payment out of nothing, whereas when he receives a bag of money from his customer, one means of payment, a bank credit, is merely substituted for another, an equal amount of cash."
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Chapter II, "Metallic Money", p. 20 (2nd ed. 1921)
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Ralph George Hawtrey
Sir Ralph George Hawtrey (22 November 1879 – 21 March 1975) was a British economist, and a close friend of John Maynard Keynes. He was a member of the , the University of Cambridge intellectual secret society.
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